2020 Sabrina Merage Foundation Artist Fellow

Lenka Clayton

Lenka Clayton (b. 1977, UK) is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA. Recent exhibitions include Fruit and Other Things (2019) at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Object Temporarily Removed (2017) at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, Talking Pictures (2017) at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Artist Residency in Motherhood (2018) at Blanton Museum in Austin, TX. Clayton is the founder of An Artist Residency in Motherhood, a self-directed, open-source artist residency program that takes place inside the homes and lives of artists who are also parents. There are currently over 1000 current artists-in-residence in 62 countries. In 2017 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum commissioned a major new work by Clayton and collaborator Jon Rubin, entitled A talking parrot, a high school drama class, a Punjabi TV show, the oldest song in the world, a museum artwork, and a congregation’s call to action circle through New York. With the participation of six diverse venues around New York City, the artists arranged for an essential element from each site—referenced in the project’s title—to circulate from one place to the next, creating a six-month network of social and material exchange.

Clayton’s work has been supported by The Warhol Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts. She has received an Art Matters Award, a Carol R. Brown Award for Creative Achievement, and a Creative Development Grant from Heinz/Pittsburgh Foundation. She has been artist-in-residence at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, PA and Headlands Center for the Arts, CA. Clayton’s work is represented by Catharine Clark Gallery SF and is held in collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, SFMoMA, The Carnegie Museum of Art and The Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis are Black Cube’s first named Artist Fellows under the Sabrina Merage Foundation. Part of Black Cube’s Artist Fellowship program, the Sabrina Merage Foundation Artist Fellowship is a 2020 fellowship for a contemporary artist, duo, or collective working at the intersection of inclusivity and diversity. This fellowship was created to support artists interested in cultivating relationships between new audiences and contemporary art. The two artists will be working collaboratively for their fellowship to create a site-specific artwork that embodies universal perspectives.

Sculpture for the Blind, by the Blind, 2017, Collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 17 artists who identify as blind make a version of Brancusi's Sculpture for the Blind from a spoken description. Photo by Carlos Avendano. — View detail

Sculpture for the Blind, by the Blind, 2017, Collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 17 artists who identify as blind make a version of Brancusi's Sculpture for the Blind from a spoken description. Portrait by Lonnie Graham. — View detail

A talking parrot, a high school drama class, a Punjabi T.V. show, the oldest song in the world, a museum artwork, and a congregation's call to action circle through New York, 2017, Commissioned by The Guggenheim Social Practice Initiative. — View detail

A talking parrot, a high school drama class, a Punjabi T.V. show, the oldest song in the world, a museum artwork, and a congregation's call to action circle through New York, 2017, Collaboration with Jon Rubin — View detail

The Distance I Can Be From My Son, 2013, A series of videos that attempt to objectively measure the furthest distance I can be from my son in a variety of environments; a city park, a back alley and Shursave supermarket. — View detail

The Distance I Can Be From My Son, 2013, A series of videos that attempt to objectively measure the furthest distance I can be from my son in a variety of environments; a city park, a back alley and Shursave supermarket. — View detail